In Question 3(x), you will be rewarded for drawing together knowledge and understanding from across your full course of study, including different areas of the theoretical framework
and media contexts.
You will then answer a 12 or 15 mark industry question, with may, for example, be like this:
(d) Explain how ownership shapes media products. Refer to The Daily Mirror to support your points. [12]
or for example be like this
(d) Explain how political contexts affect the newspaper industry. Refer to the Daily Mirror and The Times to support your points. [12]
or perhaps like this
(c) Explain how the producers of video games ensure their financial success. Refer to Assassin's Creed III: Liberation to support your points. [15]
or something along the same lines. Newspapers, videogames, radio and the film industry could all come up for this question. But what does it mean? How can refer to the whole of your course to answer a super specific question in just 12 minutes?
What the examiner is expecting is a knowledge and understanding of the context of the media industry you have explored. You only have 8, 12 or 15 minutes, so you are only likely to be able to talk about one other; two at a stretch.
Let's think about the last question: ensuring financial success.
i) How do the producers of videogames ensure financial success for their products?
ii) How do the producers of other videogames ensure the financial success of their products?
iii)How does the videogame industry, as a specialised industry, differ from one of the other industries you have studied?
In a 12, 8 or 15 mark question, you're going to have comparatively very little time to explore this idea. In the example below, we have looked at how you can look at other videogames we have studied to back this up
here's an example of an introduction:
"While the videogame industry is a specialized industry, it still uses a range of standard industry practices in order to ensure the financial success of its products. While Assassin's Creed III Liberation was not considered a financial success, every effort was made to make it so. While Assassin's Creed III is an example of a high budget AAA game, there are many other ways in which videogames can ensure their success.
A later paragraph could focus on one of the other videogames we studied in class, for example:
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions. Highly atypical marketing strategy. Years from release yet already ridiculously popular through viral marketing)
The 25th Ward: The Silver Case (extremely niche genre and game targeting a niche but fanatical audience)
Dark Souls III (From Software. Another niche game targeting it's specialised audience through extreme difficulty. Tagline: prepare to die!)
Fallout 4 (Bethesda Softworks. Huge, AAA game that uses an immersive introduction to address both long term and new fans)
Goat Simulator (Coffee Stain Studios. Tiny independent game that got extremely popular through word of mouth)